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Daily Journal, Kankakee, IL, Sunday, February23, 1997
TM can improve job performance By Tracy Ahrens, Journal writer Business people, locally and around the world,are jumping at the opportunity to offer transcendental meditation (TM) totheir employees in order to increase job performance and decrease the numberof work absences due to illness. TM is a simple technique that is performed for20 minutes, twice a day in a fairly quiet location. Today, over four millionpeople around practice this form of meditation. Jeff Tepper of Homewood, taught the first localTM classes in the area in January and again this month. Nearly 10 peopleparticipated in the first class. A TM teacher, such as Tepper, must be trained byHis Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Tepper spent 6 months with the Maharishiin Europe in the late 1960s, Over the years, 40,000 people have been trainedto teach TM and Tepper is one of the first. Maharishi brought TM to theUnited States in 1959. There is transcendental meditation and TM-Sidhi whichis an advanced program that trains a person to think and act from the levelof transcendental consciousness. "As soon as I learned how profound TM was,I wanted to know how it was taught," Tepper said in a phone interview.I wanted to share this with people. In teaching transcendental meditation,I find that it teaches you more." Tepper is a professional in the retail and wholesaleclothing business in Chicago and teaches TM in his spare time. He teachesTM to usually 5-10 people in a community center in Homewood. People of allages, educational backgrounds, cultures, and religions take part in theseclasses. Tepper was invited to Kankakee by a local businessowner who practices TM. Her mother took classes with Tepper in Homewood.This business owner thought that TM would help people in this communityand in her business. When asked what TM is like, Tepper explained itbriefly. "If I can explain it in one word, I wouldsaid it is 'fluidity,'" he said. TM is a personal instruction and peoplehave said that there "is nothing like it. It is all natural and effortless."He feels little or no stress or tension in his daily life. He meditatesin the morning before breakfast and when he gets home from work. "The most incredible apparatus in the universeis the nervous system," Tepper said. Everyone has the "naturalability to transcend thought and gain pure consciousness." This happensthrough TM. TM is taught after an introduction and preparatorylecture. Classes are taught in 4-7 consecutive days. Then students are self-sufficientand can do TM independently. They can come back later in life to do reviewclasses or group meditations. TM, briefly, is practiced 15-20 minutes a day inthe morning and evening while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed,according to a pamphlet from the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield,Iowa. A person's awareness settles and they feel a stateof "restful alert ness," the pamphlet said. "As the bodybecomes deeply relaxed, the mind transcends all mental activity to experiencethe simplest form of human awareness transcendental consciousness whereconsciousness is open to itself." Being in this state makes the mind become moreorderly, dynamic, and creative. It also rids stress and fatigue. With this,a person can be more effective in their life, whether this involves personalor business affairs. Aside from individuals who benefit from TM, thereare companies that are benefiting from it after offering it to their employees. "There are companies in Japan and the UnitedStates that offer TM," Tepper said. Employers are noticing that "anemployee that has reduced stress and tension and feels more creative andenergized, is more productive and less prone to illness." Research on TM has shown that employees that doTM have "70 percent reduced hospitalization, reduced absenteeism, lessalcoholism and less anxiety. It is all because you release (through TM)a backlog of fatigue, stress and tension that detracts from qualities younaturally have. It enhances the (productive) qualities we have within us." Employers around the world feel better seeing theiremployees feeling better, and working better through TM. A "family"atmosphere develops at work. People around those who do TM are influencedby it and want to meditate too. Scientific research has been underway over thepast 25 years on the benefits of TM. There are universities around the worldthat teach TM and conduct studies on its effects. Currently, over 500 studieshave been done at over 214 institutions. In one study conducted over 5 months by the NationalInstitute of Industrlal Health of the Japanese Ministry of Labor and theSt. Marianna Medical Institute, 447 industrial workers of Sumitomo HeavyIndustries were taught the TM technique compared to 321 who were not. The TM group showed a decrease in several areas:physical complaints, impulsiveness, emotional instability, neurotic tendencies,anxiety and insomnia. Employees who practiced TM 11 months showed animprovement at work compared to members in a control group. Relationshipswith coworkers and supervisors improved, job performance and satisfactionincreased, and the desire to change jobs decreased. A conclusion was drawn that "TM neutralizesthe stress born of routine work. It leads to a broad, comprehensive vision,with the ability to spontaneously `compute' whatever is necessary to achievea goal with the least effort and greatest benefit for oneself, the organization,and society. One's job becomes a means to unfold higher levels of success,personal development, and satisfaction." Outside of work, TM helps a person mentally andphysically. Research has shown that it increases happiness, reduces stress,reduces high blood pressure, improves relationships and possibly can reversebiological aging. The pamphlet said that "TM technique meditatorson average have the biological age of a person 5-15 years younger, as wellas significantly reduced incidents of illness and risk of heart attack." The greatest benefit of doing TM is that it "canbe taken with you anywhere and it doesn't wear out," Tepper said. Tepper is one of few area TM instructors and canbe reached for classes at 708-957-2559 or by mail at TM Program, P.O. Box1452, Homewood, IL 60430. Reprinted with permission of the DailyJournal, Kankakee, IL. |
